Engagement Party

Last weekend my parents threw Rich and I a small engagement party with family and close friends, it was lovely! The decor was kept simple and my mom used the colors I want to use for the wedding, the table cloths were a olive green and the center pieces were natural with lots green and white. The menu was delicious we had a wonderful chicken casserole with a fresh salad with some lettuce from my brother Christopher's garden! Here are a few pictures from the party.

The dinning room table dressed in green

Place cards Chloe and I made using card stock, a stamp from Micheal's, and raffia
Mom made this cute center piece using a dough bowl and a variety of white and green plants in varying heights


Candles were scattered down the table as well as two hurricanes filled with white beans and sticks...I love sticks!

Christopher slicing lemons

Chole helping with the salad

Rich looking productive

Our friends

The girls...Marissa we missed you!

Opening a gift from the Allen's

Rich's mom had this picture frame made at The Tree House which makes personalized gifts here in Chattanooga. The picture in the frame is from the night we got engaged and the picture frame is decorated in green and brown, and says "coming soon...Mr. and Mrs. Allen," so cute and thoughtful!

The party was so fun! Thanks Mom and Dad for throwing it for us and to all our other family and friends who came to help us celebrate!

It's Complicated....

Okay so I know almost everyone in the blog world has made a post on the set design of the movie It's Complicated. But I just watched the movie again since seeing it in the theater and I just love the set, and the movie for that matter it is really cute! If you have not seen it you should, if not for the entertainment for the set design!

Here are a few pictures from the movie

Window Boxes

I am by no means a gardener...but this past fall I decided to get some window boxes. I thought they would be a easy way for me to jazz up the front of my house and I could practice my gardening without committing to a whole flower bed. I put white pansies and ivy in the boxes for fall and they did pretty good...thanks to my mom and Rich who were the only ones who took care of them...oops!

Now it is time to get ride of the pansies and plant something for spring and summer. Below is a picture from Better Homes and Gardens, where they have made it simple for those who know nothing about flowers by coding this window box which is full of flowers that do well in the shade. Hopefully I will do better with my window boxes this time around...

A.Impatiens in Accent Pink

B. Impatiens in Pink Swirl

C. Dichondra Silver Falls

Here are some more cute window boxes

Splurge vs. Steal

Splurge: $ 349 Restoration Hardware

Steal: $99 Country Living for Kmart

Green, White, & Brown

To the Courthouse?

Lakewood was a lot of fun and we can back with some wonderful finds! I forgot my camera so I had to use my cell phone hopefully I will have the pics from our trip and some of our treasures posted tomorrow.

As far as wedding stuff goes....I am ready to just go to the court house....Chattanooga has like two cute wedding venues and that is it... I would love to just put up a tent but what if it rains, where are we going to go to the bathroom, what about electricity, and on and on and on....

Carrie and Big after their NO STRESS ceremony!

Lakewood Here We Come

My mom and I are going to Lakewood 400, in Atlanta this weekend! Hopefully we will find some great stuff, here is what I am on the lookout for...

I really want some transferware dinner plates and a nice platter to hang over my stove.

Okay so I know this portrait looks a little creepy but I want a something along these lines. I would like a little girl and a little boy either a oil painting or a oil pastel drawing in muted colors.

I really need some burlap pillows to go in my living room on my cream accent chairs.

I can always use more iron stone...I am trying to fade out all of the flowered dishes I have and replace them with ironstone.

This is a NEED...I need a bookcase so so badly! Right now I am using a wicker one that I have had since I was a little girl, it is cute but not really my style anymore. So if I could find one similar to this or one without panes and lots of peely paint I will be ecstatic.

The Perfect Venue...

Coming up with the perfect venue is proving to be a challenge....finding something that I like that is not booked solid...is hard to come by. One of my moms good friends was gracious enough to give up her Sunday afternoon and take us to see the cutest barn in Chickamauga, GA. As far as looks go the barn was everything I wanted, however space was a issue... So on to the next. I am looking at two more places this week and hope one of them works out!

The Bookshelf

I love this set of books by Kate Spade. I think they should be on everyone's bookshelf ,they are both pretty with lots of watercolor illustrations and are very informative.

Cottage Kitchens